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The purpose of this thread is to discuss the technology of Psycho-Pass. Feel free to discuss about Sibyl System, the dominator, and so forth.

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The 3rd episode really reveals just how powerful the dominator is. I thought it was just a system for checking suspects hue and that could make them explode in a really gory fashion, but never suspected it would let them take out an industrial robot like it was made of tissue paper. Now it definitely lives up to it's name sake, it's just an all around dominating weapon if you can keep it working.

But it not working when offline is a pretty significant weakness. They are police though, and irl police have handguns instead of assault rifles. I would love to see what their swat equivalent uses. =P

Dominator is nice, but I hope it's not the be all end all for their weaponry.

The 3rd episode really reveals just how powerful the dominator is. I thought it was just a system for checking suspects hue and that could make them explode in a really gory fashion, but never suspected it would let them take out an industrial robot like it was made of tissue paper. Now it definitely lives up to it's name sake, it's just an all around dominating weapon if you can keep it working.

The "Kill" setting already gets really messy, but I didn't expect it to still have a setting above that which can easily take out huge armoured drones.
If that's what handguns can do, what about bigger guns? Or even Special Forces weapons?

Not being able to shoot without a Sybil online check is a clear weakness indeed, but such a powerful weapon at least needs some sort of safety check. Even if it's not that much, given how screwed up this Sybil system seems to be, but still better than nothing.

I have a question about "holograms", people can use them to dress up and change clothes especially anytime as Akane front of the building of the laboratory ... but that its mean Akane and others kind of home "naked" or underwear?
lol...

What do you think the state of genetic modification research is in the world of Psycho-Pass? If their society is okay with the whole Sibyl System, I don't think it's a stretch that virtually everyone would not mind to have their genes altered to avoid the inherent criminal factors (similar to the famous saying "eventually it will be a sin for parents to let their children born with genetic diseases"). And if they already have such an advanced system like Sibyl, I also don't think it's too much of a stretch that the genetic manipulation technologies to achieve that should already be widely available.

No, I wouldn't say so. If genetic modification was that widespread, then most of the young adults would have low PP/CCs. But we have Shuusei, who is probably the 2nd youngest member of the CID, get flagged at 5. And Akane's school friends are all jealous of her naturally healthy PP, so I don't believe that they've started GATTACA level genetic modification yet.

If you ask me, the Sibyl system would probably meet less resistance from the public than genetic modification, so there's also that.

What do you think the state of genetic modification research is in the world of Psycho-Pass? If their society is okay with the whole Sibyl System, I don't think it's a stretch that virtually everyone would not mind to have their genes altered to avoid the inherent criminal factors (similar to the famous saying "eventually it will be a sin for parents to let their children born with genetic diseases"). And if they already have such an advanced system like Sibyl, I also don't think it's too much of a stretch that the genetic manipulation technologies to achieve that should already be widely available.

Surprisingly, I think genetic modification is not a norm in this world. You would think it's a logical next step, but it seems the Psycho-pass society stops short of eugenics and gene manipulation. If that were the case, you'd think that anyone who is capable of affording such modification would already do so, sort of how cyborg technology was commonplace in the Ghost in the Shell universe, or how genetic modification was an everyday norm in Gattaca.

Yet, we see people who are unable to deal with the everyday stress of a monotonous job or the raging jealousy of seeing one's crush go out with another guy. In fact, other than how mental health has become a police matter, and how career-planning has become a matter of psychological profiling, many other things about the Psycho-pass universe resemble those of our world.

I have a question about "holograms", people can use them to dress up and change clothes especially anytime as Akane front of the building of the laboratory ... but that its mean Akane and others kind of home "naked" or underwear?
lol...

As seen in episode 4, holograms only go over the furniture, so it would be reasonable to assume that the clothes that Akane first puts on are her office/work clothes, and then she uses the mirror thing to project a hologram over them.

Also just wearing unsubstantial holograms would be pretty uncomfortable and awkward, don't you think?

As seen in episode 4, holograms only go over the furniture, so it would be reasonable to assume that the clothes that Akane first puts on are her office/work clothes, and then she uses the mirror thing to project a hologram over them.

Also just wearing unsubstantial holograms would be pretty uncomfortable and awkward, don't you think?

ok it must have worn something probably and I admit to kind of thing is practice

Surprisingly, I think genetic modification is not a norm in this world. You would think it's a logical next step, but it seems the Psycho-pass society stops short of eugenics and gene manipulation.

This seems to be the case, surprising indeed. I guess it's a necessary premise to carry on with the story for now, because the widespread of genetic manipulation will shove a lot of the problems currently depicted in the show. Well, it doesn't bother me too much, but it would be a nice addition if the show explains more background story, even if just in passing, why genetic manipulation isn't yet widespread.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Terizent

If you ask me, the Sibyl system would probably meet less resistance from the public than genetic modification, so there's also that.

I doubt that. The reason I quoted the phrase "eventually it will be a sin for parents to let their children born with genetic diseases" is because that's what criminals in the Psycho-Pass world are treated: a "disease" that's inherent, sort of like a genetic disease. With the Sibyl System in place, I doubt that genetic modification would encounter much resistance, if at all. Currently, this still doesn't seem to take root, but I think this is the next step a society so obsessed with 'efficiency' would take.

Actually, I see the apparent lack of eugenics or genetic manipulation as signs that the Psycho-Pass universe isn't as dystopian as it at first appears. There are good ethical reasons to prevent people from playing God, for example, when it comes to "customising" our bodies to order. That's very different from treating someone after he has been diagnosed with neurological tendencies to criminal behaviour.

But, as you said, I think the more important consideration is that if people could fix themselves genetically before birth, then there wouldn't be a story to tell. To be sure, the further into the series, we go, the less I think the Psycho-Pass is really that badly broken. It's broken at the seams, but that's true for any society. In Psycho-Pass, they have virtual-reality chatrooms. They have amazingly advanced holographic technology. They also likely have an abundance of "happy" pills to treat all kinds of mental-health problems like depression.

Seriously, I suspect that the average citizen is probably quite satisfied with his modern conveniences. It even appears that people have the choice not to work if they happen to strike rich somehow. So, the Sibyl System really doesn't seem as restrictive as many critics make it out to be.

Given that the society in the world of Psycho-Pass has no qualms about locking up a five year old boy in fear he could become a criminal (something most people would consider unethical), I would think that if such genetic manipulation existed, they would gladly use them in order to ensure crime would disappear. So I think the reason they don't do it is simple: they can't yet. It's not because technology is so advanced that genetics have to be as well. There are possibly hundreds of genes responsible for criminal behavior, if not more. It's possible they hit a wall at some point.

It is also possible that genetics manipulation are commonplace but aren't advanced enough to completely eradicate all kinds of predisposition to "unacceptable behaviors".

I wrote something about why there aren't any mental health professionals, and why the police is that unpopular in the ep.4 thread, but thought it might be relevant here as well.

I would be very surprised if there were still any mental health professionals at all (outside of "treatment camps", that is).
Visiting any such person would make you instantly suspicious. "Oh, looks like there's someone in need of treatment."
That treatment doesn't seem to be a nice thing either, given how people go to great lenghts to avoid it (or to get scanned in the first place). Some sort of brainwashing, perhaps?
Thus, people keep all their problems to themselves, making sure to let no one know about them, in order to look as "sane" as possible.
No wonder that charlatans like "Talisman" are so extremely popular - it's the only thing people have left, where they can talk about their problems anonymously.

I think that coming into frequent contact with "not-so-sane" people is the main thing scaring people off the police job. For those who still take it, there might be a high drop-out rate of people who feel that their PP is getting too clouded from the job, and then quickly quit before they turn into "latent criminals" and are degraded to Enforcers - which all seem to be ex-police, without exception, as I can't imagine them hiring actual criminals for that job.
Once humiliated by that degradation, some Enforcers (like Shinja) seem to rely excessively on that Sybil system (which isn't all that great to begin with) - probably, because they don't trust their own judgement anymore and feel it brought upon their present situation.

The fact that the CID is implied to be greatly understaffed tells us this is obviously not a popular job maybe for the reasons you just stated.

Something else I noticed when I thoguht about it some more: Did you notice that *all* the police members we've seen so far are still pretty young? There's not a single middle-aged person among them.
The only older one is that one Enforcer, Masaoka.
That would further support what I've said - either they're all leaving pretty soon again, or they end up as Enforcers like Masaoka.

Well the latest episode cleared up some stuff for me, I'd been wondering how exactly everyone was able to see/hear the guns and after this episode I'm guessing they all have computer implants like the reporter lady did (since obviously she didn't think anything of having them so they must be rather common). And there was also that interesting line about how people who spent more time around the elderly as children seem to bond with their home AIs better and Akane's jellyfish has acted not exactly as a parent but as a caretaker for her, both taking care of and spoiling a bit, like the way an extended family member might act. Or they could've just had that line to fill time/make the professor seem even smarter.

Well the latest episode cleared up some stuff for me, I'd been wondering how exactly everyone was able to see/hear the guns and after this episode I'm guessing they all have computer implants like the reporter lady did (since obviously she didn't think anything of having them so they must be rather common). And there was also that interesting line about how people who spent more time around the elderly as children seem to bond with their home AIs better and Akane's jellyfish has acted not exactly as a parent but as a caretaker for her, both taking care of and spoiling a bit, like the way an extended family member might act. Or they could've just had that line to fill time/make the professor seem even smarter.

Actually, the Dominators use directional sound, so only the users can hear them. This isn't something out of scifi, it's already being used in the real world.

I suspect that the GUI/HUG is projected onto their eyes or something, in the same vein.